Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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WD10JMVW-11S5XS0

October 19th, 2025, 12:32

Hello everyone,

I've received WD My Passport USB from a family member - PCB was bad, ordered same PCB (2060-771801-002), soldered patient's ROM chip (U12) to donor PCB and connected to original HDD. As many years have passed and he already gave up any hopes on this, he gave it to me to take a look one more time.

Now, the USB disk is visible in Windows as 'Elements', WD software doesn't recognize it, no partitions or raw files found with DMDE.
No clicking sound or other odd behaviour, using HDDSuperClone created copy at full speed, no errors.
In hex editor sector 0 has some garbage ending with 0x55AA, sector 1 has a repeating pattern.

WDMarvel recognizes it as:

Model: WDC WD10JMVW-11S5XS0
S/N: WD-WXC1EC261264 (correct)
F/W: 01.01A01 03.78C
(missing Family, but it is Firebird)

RDY and DSC states

All S/A modules are OK except:
04 (not readed, SCSI error 020B0000)
24, 6F, 0123, 0124, 0125, 0126, D002, D003 (readed, but invalid CRC)

P-List editor showing 5260 defects, other lists are OK.
Testing heads (0-3): OK

S.M.A.R.T. info as attached.

I had some data recovery experience back in the Conner and IBM times, but SED and USB-HDD technology is new to me. Maybe it's a very simple issue or perhaps it's beyond repair - just wanted to ask experts here if it's solvable in a DIY way.
Attachments
Screenshot 2025-10-18 201732.png

Re: WD10JMVW-11S5XS0

October 19th, 2025, 12:56

I've received WD My Passport USB from a family member

Now, the USB disk is visible in Windows as 'Elements', WD software doesn't recognize it, no partitions or raw files found with DMDE.
No clicking sound or other odd behaviour, using HDDSuperClone created copy at full speed, no errors.
In hex editor sector 0 has some garbage ending with 0x55AA, sector 1 has a repeating pattern.

Yes, the data is likely encrypted. Besides U12, you also had to transfer U14, which contains the USB key (if you want to copy via that interface).

Re: WD10JMVW-11S5XS0

October 19th, 2025, 13:00

Hi,

Thank you for help. Is it possible to read that encryption key in any other way (S/A?) or transferring U14 is the only option? It's quite busy around that chip.

Re: WD10JMVW-11S5XS0

October 19th, 2025, 13:06

The key should be in module 25.
https://forum.acelab.eu.com/viewtopic.php?t=8555
I think that in your case, the fastest solution would be to transfer the chip.

Re: WD10JMVW-11S5XS0

October 19th, 2025, 13:33

Well, I can extract module 25, but I can't find any option for automatic decryption in WDMarvel (as it is in PC-3000). Looks like I will have to find a good soldering guy to replace U14 then.

Thank you!
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